Welcome to my stop on the book tour for Vivir el Dream.  Be sure to check out all sections of today’s blog.  There is a giveaway at the end that you will want to enter.

Author Allison Garcia has written a contemporary Christian Latino novel that is packed full of emotion and relevance.  It is the first of her pieces that I have read.  This author writes with emotion and grit.  She doesn’t offer candy-coated fluff.  Garcia gives readers real life scenarios even if they are harsh.

In this book, issues of immigration, violence, deportation, and even language are discussed.  With our country discussing a “wall” that made this book even more timely.  Difficult topics were openly and honestly portrayed.  At times I felt my toes being stepped on and other times my feelings were hurt.  This is a real to life book.

The writing was candid and made me emotional.  Characters were vividly described.  I became invested in their stories and got emotional with them.  It was easy to imagine things as they played out in this hard hitting book.  I was so taken with the characters and their trial that by the end of the book my emotions were raw.

The Christian Faith element was woven throughout this book.  There was no doubt this was a Christian book.  I was able to pick up some bits of knowledge by reading this.  Life lessons are packed into this novel.  After reading this I have a better understanding of immigrants.

Definitely I would recommend this book.   Contemporary fiction readers will enjoy and those liking Latino Fiction.  It is very impactful and stayed with me long after I finished it. I was disappointed there are no discussion questions.  This would make a great book group read.

A copy was provided by Celebrate Lit but I was under no obligation to write a favorable review.  These are my own honest thoughts.

 

About the Book

Book: Vivir el Dream

Author: Allison K Garcia

Genre: Christian Latino Fiction

Release Date: May 19, 2017

The fates of an undocumented college student and her mother intertwine with a suicidal businessman’s. As circumstances worsen, will their faith carry them through or will their fears drag them down?

Linda Palacios crossed the border at age three with her mother, Juanita, to escape their traumatic life in Mexico and to pursue the American dream. Years later, Linda nears college graduation. With little hope for the future as an undocumented immigrant, Linda wonders where her life is going.

Tim Draker, a long-unemployed businessman, has wondered the same thing. Overcome with despair, he decides to take his own life. Before he can carry out his plan, he changes course when he finds a job as a mechanic. Embarrassed about working at a garage in the barrio, he lies to his wife in hopes of finding something better.

After Juanita’s coworker gets deported, she takes in her friend’s son, Hector, whom her daughter Linda can’t stand, While Juanita deals with nightmares of her traumatic past, she loses her job and decides to go into business for herself.

Will the three of them allow God to guide them through the challenges to come, or will they let their own desires and goals get in the way of His path?

Click here to purchase your copy.

About the Author

Allison K. Garcia is a Licensed Professional Counselor, but she has wanted to be a writer ever since she could hold a pencil. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Shenandoah Valley Writers, Virginia Writers Club, and is Municipal Liaison for Shenandoah Valley NaNoWriMo.

Allison’s short story, “At Heart,” was published in the Winter 2013 edition of From the Depths literary magazine, along with her flash fiction. Her work, “You Shall Receive,” was published in GrayHaven Comics’s 2014 All Women’s anthology. Winning an honorary mention in the ACFW Virginia 2015 short story contest, “Just Another Navidad” was published in A bit of Christmas. Allison’s book, Vivir el Dream, published May 2017, has won several prestigious awards: 2016 ACFW Genesis Contest Finalist, 2018 Eric J. Hoffer Montaigne Medal Finalist, Honorary Mention in the 2018 Eric. J. Hoffer Awards E-book category, and 2018 IAN Book of the Year Awards Finalist in the Christian/Relgious Fiction category. Her highly-anticipated novel, Finding Amor, was released in September 2018.

Latina at heart, Allison has been featured in local newspapers for her connections in the Latino community in Harrisonburg, Virginia. A member of cultural competency committees for work and a participant in several pro-immigrant rallies and other events in her region, she also sings on the worship team and enjoys get-togethers with the hermanos in her church. With the help of her husband, Julio, and their son, Miguel, she has been able to nurture her love for the Latino people.

More from Allison K. Garcia

Authenticity and Love

When I wrote my debut novel Vivir el Dream in 2012, I never imagined that it was going to win five awards, that I would be invited to churches and universities and NPR to speak about it, or that it would be taught on a college campus. That’s not why I wrote it. Sure, I hoped that people would read it and love it, but I never imagined the impact it would have and the book’s relevance seven years later.

There were two main reasons I wrote Vivir el Dream: authenticity and love.

They go hand-in-hand, but I shall tell you a little about how God sparked the story in my heart.

In 2011, we had three church members deported, and one of them was a dear friend—a good man who loves his family, greeted the congregation at the door, helped take the collection every Sunday and set up the tables and chairs for special programs. To see our friend, and hermano en Cristo, treated in a way that traumatized his children and nearly tore apart up his family, was something that broke my heart. But what broke it worse was seeing how the media spoke about undocumented people and sadder yet, having conversations with other Christians who spoke anger and hatred towards “illegals.”

God spoke to my heart about this. How could my brothers and sisters in Christ be so unkind and uncaring? Hadn’t they read The Good Samaritan? Didn’t they remember about loving our neighbors? It happened again and again, and I realized, with God’s help, that one of the challenges was that people didn’t understand the real story. They were fed a certain stereotype by the media, an image of a tattooed person in a gang or a drug dealer.

They hadn’t actually met anyone undocumented. Or at least they hadn’t realized they had.

In my life and in my job as a counselor, I had met tons of undocumented immigrants, and I had known them the great majority to be kind, hard-working people who wanted the best for their family and were willing to risk it all for the chance at the American dream. I saw love, I saw bravery, I saw strength, I saw faith. And I believe that God showed me those things so that I could reflect that in my novels.

A wonderful thing happens when we’re reading a book. We jump into the shoes of the main character. We understand their plight. Their hopes are our hopes. We feel their story, their dreams, their love, their anguish, their joy. That is one of the great things about reading. We escape our own lives for a while and experience a new adventure, gain a new understanding. We go places and meet people and do things we would never be able to in our own lives.

So that is what God placed on my heart to share with the world: an authentic experience of a mother and daughter who are undocumented Christians.

It’s controversial, but then so was the Gospel. What is more controversial than Jesus’ teachings? To love those who hate us. To turn the other cheek. To give away all possessions to join Him. I mean, what is more controversial than being asked to believe that a man born over 2,000 years was the Son of God and was risen from the dead after three days and that giving one’s heart over to Him will save one’s soul so as to live for all of eternity with God in Heaven?

And yet, that is the very heart of the Gospel.

To love God and to love others.

So, in the spirit of loving God and listening to Him, I wrote Vivir el Dream and published it even when the world pushed against it and continues to do so, perhaps more now than in 2012. All the more reason to love our neighbor more and to hold tighter onto God and His teachings.

I hope you enjoy my book. I hope it takes you on a new, heartwrenching adventure that carries you from the anguish in crossing a desert with your three-year-old daughter on your hip to the freedom in cooking tamales in the kitchen while swaying to cumbia, from the stabbing fear of living in a country that doesn’t want you to experiencing the joy of first love, and from the desperation of staring down an empty barrel to the understanding of truth for your fellow man.

God bless. And happy reading.

Blog Stops

Multifarious, March 16

100 pages per hour, March 17

Stephanie’s Life of Determination, March 18

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 19

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 20

Texas Book-aholic, March 21

janicesbookreviews, March 22

A Reader’s Brain, March 23

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, March 24

Inklings and notions, March 25

The Becca Files, March 26

Real World Bible Study, March 27

Power of Words, March 28

Just the Write Escape, March 29

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Allison is giving away a grand prize of a gift basket that includes 4 Christian novels, secret recipes for some of the Mexican cuisine described in Vivir el Dream, and authentic arts and crafts from Guadalajara, Mexico or by preference, a $40 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter. https://promosimple.com/ps/dd7f/viver-el-dream-celebration-tour-giveaway